Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

II th after an engine change between sessions when a titanium valve stretched. Then carne Stroud, benefitting from chasing Slight in session one but struggl ing with a bike that refused to stop wobbling through the long flat o u t kink, then Lopez-Mella riding more aggressively than for some tim e at a track which resembles ]arama, and Knight and Doohan. Race one Th e ambi ent temperature was hovering aro u nd 93 degrees a nd th e tra ck temperature 115 degrees as the field mad e a rather mess y start from th e grid. Pirovano , unsu rprisingly, grabbed -th e holeshot by just out-braking Roche into the first tum. Phillis was third ahead of Polen before Mertens cam e flying up past them both. The Belgian was giving it everything early, leading laps two, three and four before Phillis stuffed him to take over from laps five through nine. Then it was Pirovano's tum again, sliding underneath the Kawasaki in the kink at the fastest part of the course in a neat maneuver. Roche outbraked Phillis into the left-hand Lucky Strike Loop which follows and by the end of the next lap Mertens and Falappa had pushed the Au stralian back to fifth . "The bik e was so slow it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding," Phillis complained later . "The temperature was real high , the rear tire was sliding and I was wearing my unvented leather suit, I could hardly stand the heat with five laps to go ." The order behind the top five a t the end of lap II was Polen, Tardozzi, Slight, Fogarty all with . the leaders, then a gap to Rym er and another gap back to Merkel, who had lucked out and found a front tire that worked and was leading th e scrapping teammates Knight and Stroud. From this point on, it was all backwards for Mertens as he lost the use of the clutch . He eventually dropped back to ninth. The problem was an unusual one, the piston in the Brembo master cyli nder actually having a hole in it. Roche and Pirovano were now going right at it, swapping the lead three times on lap 12 before the Duca ti rider emerged in front. They even appeared to hit a t one stage, an incident which Roche confirmed but Pirovano denied. Polen was never a factor, not coming forward and threatening at all: "The gearing wasn 't right." he explained later. " First was too low and second was too tall so I'm going to change to my spare bike for race two. I'll also change compounds because that one was a little soft, " For the next few laps the gap between Roche and Pirovano was never more than a tenth or two but on lap 17 it blew out to over a second after the Yamaha had a big slide. From there, Roche went on to score an untroubled win by. 3.5 seconds. But who would finish second was another question. Falappa had dropped out of third as his left arm and shoulder faded and he was unable to operate his clutch lever, but his eventual sixth was still a meritorious result, Phillis, his times varying erratically, went back into third briefly, but coming through hard was Tardozzi, disposing of and unsettling Polen as he ran him wide under brakes at Lucky Strike Loop, then catching Falappa and finally Phillis. He pressured Pirovano but was unable to beat him: "My back protector was too tight and I got cramps, I couldn't feel my legs for the last 10 laps." Tardozzi gas ped as he slumped swea t-soaked on a sofa in his garage. " Also th e front tire was gone with 10 laps to go. " It was liule consola tion 'as he recovered to know tha t he had no bett er front Pirelli to change to. Polen wasn 't go ing to win but he co u ldn' t be kept out of the glory altogether, setti ng a new lap record at 1:28.69 and pass ing a dispirited Ph ill is on the last lap. Slight, in sevent h , was ano ther unhappy Kawasaki p ilot after being constantly stymied by the fleet of &"ln~ing Italian V-twins. Fogarty, agam first H onda, was in the same posi tio n and unhappy with virtua lly every aspect of hi s bike -lack of po wer and a surfei t of vibra tion from th e spa re motor , tires, gear selection plus a kn ee scrape r fell off and he damaged his leathers. Behind Mertens, Rymer rounded out the top 10, with Stroud just pipping Merkel to the line after they traded II th place twice on the last lap. DeVries and Mella battled each other through most of the race, passing an unlucky Knight in the last cou pIe of laps after his rear tire did a ' Doo han' and shed a long strip of tread on the left-hand side. He was lucky to finish considering the hol e in the tire went through to th e canvas. The tire th at failed had been 'used as a qualifier by the main Michelin men because it was too soft for race conditi ons. But Knigh t had as ked for a specia l tire and that was all that was available. The result was probabl y not surp rising: " For me it was a good en ginee ring test," joked Michelin's Laurent ]oly. Race two The clouds had moved in but th e .temperature remained stuck at 93 degrees and track temperature had gone up to an incredible 122 as th e field roared away in much tidi er fashion with Roche holeshotting. Mertens immediately took over with Pirovano, Slight, Phillis, Tardozzi, Falappa, Rymer, Merkel, Polen and Fogarty making up the lead group as they ended the first lap. Stroud had already come in to have - th e COl changed and was back out again before the leaders came round for lap two. T hi s was to have significance lat er in th e race. Pirovano, with sparks trailing from his exhaust pipe from the second lap th anks to a broken bracket, and Slight were the movers. Both were desperate to try and break clear of the Ducatis and their superior drive. By lap five they were first and second and had eked out 0.5 sec. over Mertens, with Roche, Falappa and Phillis in tow. The Australian's involvement cam e to an end at th is point when a fork seal bl ew : "It's just one of those things," he lamented later. " It' s a 20 cent part and it 's no one's fault. Anders (Andersson, Ohlins rep) is nearly in tears . It could have just been a stone thrown up from the track. The pity was I was j u st sitting there and cruising, letting them sort th emselves OUL " They would now do that without him. And Falappa too. He moved past Roche for fourth on lap nine but within another four laps was out wh en the exhaust pipe header broke off on the rear cylinder. At th e halfway stage th e o rd er remained static at the top, with Pol en hanging off the back. He 'd changed the gearing on the back-up bike and was now regretting the decision. Tardozzi was next and dropping away as his tired engine lost horsepower while the grimly determined Fogarty was hanging on in yet another excel lent ride. Stephane Mertens qualified third fastest, and finished second in race two. Italian Davide Tardozzi posted 3·6 finishes aboard his Ducati. But on tha t lap they cam e within sight of Stroud and th e next lap they were on him. While the Kawa sak i rider kept pressing on, lapping quite hard, the rest had to find their own wa y round him. Pirovano managed i t successfully, but Slight was balked badl y and lost his 0.8 sec. lead over Mertens, who swiftly rel ieved him of secon d place. Then Roche got him as well , as he battled to get by h is ' tea m mat e' . That was th e en d of Slight'S challenge for the lead . Now Roche was on the move. On, lap 13 he 'd set the fastest lap of the race at 1:28.7 and he passed Mertens on lap 18. In a breath-taking move around the ou tside in the sweepe r he took Pirovano for th e lead on lap 20. From th ere he just drew away, leading by more than three seconds on lap 25 and then slowing down on the last lap to win by 2.74 seconds: " All this year; everytime problems," Roche said afterwards. "This is the first race this year without problems." Again the battle for second heated up with Mertens taking the pos iti on o n lap 23. Polen came at him on lap 25, the two of them traded second twice in two com ers with Mertens tou ghing it ou t. On the last lap Polen found a fal se neutral a t the Lucky Strike Loop and had to strai gh ten the Ducati up, allowi ng Pirovano and Slight to dive back th rough . Tardozzi ch ugged homesixth ah ead of Fogarty with Crafar putting in a fin e rid e for eighth ahead of Merkel, wh o on ly re-passed Lopez-Mell a on the last lap. Rym er retired on lap 17. unable to select gears and Fred moved back into seventh in the championship but lost more ground to Fogarty in the battle to be first Honda. Polen, his incredible run of seven stra igh t wins brough t to an end iro nica lly th e day before hi s 31st birihday - now has scored 281 championship po ints. While he is virtually guaranteed the titl e, second place is where the big battle lies. Phillis has 189. Ro che , 174 and Pirovano 166. Even Merten s' 138 is an outside chance. Fogar ty is still in sixth place while Merkel mov ed back past Rymer into seventh and T ardozzi in to a clea r nin th ahead of Falappa. a Results QUAUFYING: 1. Doug Pol en (I mi nute, 28.08 xrond>J89.0 1 mp h ); 2. Ra ymon d Roch e ( 1:28.56); 3. Srepha ne Mert ens (1:28.64 ); i . Rob Phillis ( 1:28.87); 5. Aaron Sligh, ( 1:29.05); 6. Da vide Tardom (1:29. 17); 7. ianc:Ulo Falappa ( 1:29.33); 8. Terry Rymer (1:29.56); 9. Fred Merkel ( t :29A I~ 10. Fabrizio P irovan o (1:29.19); II . Carl Fogarty (1:29.57); 12. A. Srroud (1:29.58); U . Juan Lopez Md la ( 1:30.35); 1-1. j. Knigb, (1:50.53); IS. S. Doohan ( 1:30.72); 16. S. Cra lar (1:50.91); 17. j ellry De Vries ( 1:3 1.22); 18. T . j ordan (1:31.12); 19. jean Yves Mounier (1:31.58); 20. M. Kua n (1:32.58); 21. S. o.eung (1:38.89); 22. P. Smo lik ( 1:1 0. 7 1 ~ RACE 1: 1. Raymo nd Roch e (Due); 2. Fabrizio Pirovano (Yarn); 3. Davide Tardozri ( D~e); 4. Dou g Pol en (Due ); 5. Rob Ph ill is (Ka w); 6. Gia ncar lo Fala ppa (Due); 7. Aaron Sligh t ( Ka w~ 8. Car l Fogarty (H on); 9. Stephane Mm ens (Due); 10. Terry Rym

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